Protection
by Eden Hunter
Summary: Tseng is requested by Hojo to retrieve the Ancient girl and has to decide what is more important.  His career or this little girls & the planets future.  One sided love.  sorry..first attempt at a summary...hard


DISCLAIMER: I Do not own Final Fantasy or the characters and am not making money from this. Just getting a bit of time to myself to step away from the world and relax. I hope you enjoy :)

He was at a loss.

The day had started like most others, smog-filled skies and the muted sounds of the city living below. He expected that the day would be similar to a normal day as well. He would complete his paperwork and redo the reports that haven't been adequately completed by his less competent peers. He was sure to sign it so that he would receive thanks and acknowledgement from Veld & the President. It was important that they knew how hard he worked to ensure his position as the next TURKS director. Heaven forbid he remained an equal to Reno forever.

But today was very different. He arrived to his office to find a mission request sitting on his desk. That was not unusual. Although he'd rather avoid field missions he did enjoy proving that he could overcome any and all obstacles to complete a mission for Shin-Ra. The note on top was slightly out of the ordinary but in the scientists hand so not strange for him. It merely said that Tseng had been requested to deal with the mission as he had a 100% success rate in retrieval missions and had proven that he could deal with even the toughest emotional situations.

No. His surprise had come from the contents of the folder. Background information on the Cetra, the Ancients, as well as the details of their escape last month. Tseng had heard of them several times before. He knew what the Scientists were doing and didn't agree with it. He had been relieved when they had escaped but knew that the mother did not survive the escape which meant the little girl, still a baby, was out there alone and had little chance of surviving in the slums.

Scouts had found her and Hojo was taking no chances in retrieving her. She was his last chance of finding the Promised Land. He had worked so hard he deserved to be the one who uncovered it. He wanted to ensure that the best of the best was on the job and that meant Tseng.

He didn't know what to do. There wasn't any refusing the mission, the Scientist would have his head for refusing him. But if he accepted and was successful it would mean putting that little girl, with her glorious green eyes back in the hands of that man, without a mother, for him to do what he wishes. It was a hard thought to even consider. The most important asset the planet held and that man wanted to taint it, to dissect and destroy it. But if he failed it would ruin everything he had worked for. Such a simple mission too; she had no means of defence. If he failed this he would be laughed at by Reno and he couldn't handle that humiliation. In the end it came down to his reputation and future…to her life and future, as well as possibly the future of the planet. "It seemed pretty obvious what he must do, yet it was no easy decision.

He had only 12 hours until night fall and that is when he was to do the mission. He worked hard to complete all of his work that day and check on everyone else to make sure they were up to date. He cleaned theTURKS Work area after Reno had clearly slept another drunken night on the floor and left lolly wrappers and bottles hiding in every crevice of furniture. He hated it but hated working in a messy office even more. He cleaned the kitchenette and then went to the gym to work off some tension. He didn't hesitate to jump in the shower afterward, wanting to wash the day away and hoped that somehow the mission would magically disappear; but then he couldn't do that. He had to be grateful he was put in charge. Just thinking about how that careless rube Reno would treat her made him cringe. He got dressed and grabbed the supplies he would need for tracking her and retrieving her and then set of for Sector 5.

He arrived at the quaint little house a little after midnight and noticed just how rundown the area was. In the corner of his eye he noticed a hint of colour. Caught off guard he turned expecting to see a person, he realised it was a flower, resting at eye height on the ledge above the stairs. He was amazed that a flower was able to grow in the slums. He took a few moments to look around the garden. Most of it seemed unloved and ruined but almost every bed, no matter how unkempt was starting to grow new life. He started to wonder if this was an effect that the Ancients had on the world. Could they really bring life and beauty to even the ugliest, hateful places?

He was caught off guard again when a small cough met his ears. He turned around again to find the little girl looking at him inquisitively. He was stunned. He had planned on breaking in and deciding whether or not to go through with it once he was there but his plans flew out the window now that this little girl stared at him so softly with those intensely coloured eyes. Emotions rushed over him like a waved had suddenly hit him and he was thrown aback by the sudden response. She was still just staring at him smiling unwaveringly. He went to move and she finally spoke.

"Do you like flowers? There weren't any here when I moved in but they seem to have woken up."

Tseng paused, unsure how to respond. "Agh, I don't mind them. I was surprised to see them here. Have you been looking after them? You are very talented to be able to grow them down here." He was certain at this point that she was the most precious thing on the planet and he would make it his duty to protect her from the evils of the world. He had no idea how considering he worked for the company and the man that posed the biggest threat to her safety but he was here and he would keep her safe for as long as he could.

He spent many hours sitting on the stairs to the garden talking to that sweet little girl. It was the happiest he had been in a long time. She was wise beyond her years but still so innocent and loving. She was willing to trust him without knowing who he was. He wondered if that was because she was naïve or if her heritage meant she could see things in people that others couldn't. He certainly hoped she wasn't so trusting with everyone, otherwise she would be tough to protect, but she looked very tough and confident for such a small child that he felt she would be alright, perhaps even without him. Regardless, he was here now and hoped to be in her life as long as he could be.

In the early hours of the morning he left her to sleep and returned to Shin-Ra headquarters to face his punishment. He was trying to think of a way to explain his failure that wouldn't result in Hojo doing the honours of "firing" him on the spot. He walked into the TURKS office to find Rude making breakfast.

"You're back from your mission late. Did you run into some resistance?" Rude was obviously suspicious. Most likely because Tseng didn't have his usual better than everyone else demeanour.

"It didn't go as expected. I'm sure you will hear all about it soon enough." Tseng tried to walk to his office before being interrogated but Rube was an intimidating person and managed to sleep between Tseng and his escape route.

Rude seemed oddly concerned, instead of the condescension that Tseng had expected. "I'd rather hear it from you. You may think we are all lessor beings but I still consider you a friend, or at least an acquaintance. So what happened? It's obvious you didn't bring her back. Surely there weren't any real complications; you don't have a scratch on you. If you are going to go and come up with an elaborate escape story then you may want to go for a jog first, or something."

Hmm. Rude had hit the nail on the head. Tseng was so busy thinking of how to spin the web of lies he would weave that would keep him in charge of her recovery he hadn't even considered making it look real, just as long as it sounded real.

"Thank you. I appreciate the concern. I just have to grab a couple things from my office and I will be going again. Tseng quickly brushed past Rude and grabbed a folder and his runners from his gym bag.

The jog turned out to be the perfect medicine for everything. Tseng was able to think of answers to all the questions he could foresee coming his way and was ready to face Hojo's wrath.

After an intense 5 hour meeting with the President, Hojo and The TURKS director Veld where he was berated and abused about his brilliant display of incompetence by Hojo and given very disappointed lectures by both the President and Veld himself but his pride and reputation were remarkably fairly well intact. Apparently he had done an even better job showing his superiors what an invaluable asset he was that they weren't willing to fire him over a stuff up as astronomical as this (although Hojo would have gladly played a rigged game of Russian roulette with Tseng's head and a fully loaded gun). Somehow he had even managed to keep the retrieval job, explaining he needed to redeem himself however he could.

Tseng spent as much of his spare time as he could with Aeris. She was grateful for his company, even if he was supposed to be capturing her and returning her to that evil man. He had been sent out to retrieve her several times and each time had a great, elaborate excuse why it failed, never his fault although he was happy to accept full responsibility. He was even assigned SOLDIER's that reported directly to Hojo to prove he wasn't sabotaging the mission and each of them came back and reported to Hojo that Tseng had done everything he could but The girl was too quick and slipped into a small crack in the wall into the next sector or she had someone with her that interfered while she made her escape.

10 years passed with little in the way of complications surrounding his "protection" of Aeris but he much busier as Director of TURKS and was finding less and less time to spend with her. She had grown and was becoming more wary of him since he was promoted. Perhaps she felt he would be less inclined to risk his job for the sake of her now. Soon after being promoted Hojo had started putting the pressure on him to pass the assignment onto Reno as Reno had proven himself to be quite capable in similar missions that Hojo had sent him on to collect specimens. He was struggling to come up with excuses why not so knew there would come a time soon where he would no longer be able to protect her. Tseng had recently met a very nice young SOLDIER that had just made it as a 1st class SOLDIER and seemed like the perfect candidate for some very delicate manipulation. Here is a beautiful young women, perfect and wonderful, being chased by evil men for no obvious reason and surely this boy would want to do everything he could to keep her safe too.

Tseng worked with Zack as often as he could and even started to take assignments in the slums that he would never have even considered before now for the chance to have Zack run into Aeris. It didn't take long for Zack to spot Aeris in the slums; she was clearly out of place. He was even more willing to protect her than Tseng had expected and she seemed to beam in his presence. Tseng hadn't expected them to fall in love and couldn't help but to feel a little jealous, but perhaps it was for the best. Tseng was never going to be able to get close to her like Zack did, so there is no reason for him to be jealous, but he couldn't help it. Whatever the circumstances, as long as Zack was around then he could be happy that she was safe again.

It was only a year or more later that everything started to fall apart. Tseng had relinquished the mission to Reno and although Reno was indeed struggling to retrieve the girl due to "unforeseen circumstances" he was getting very close and it wouldn't be long until she would fall victim to him. Then Zack had died and Tseng knew he couldn't protect her anymore. He knew the only way he could even attempt to keep her safe was to indeed bring her into Shin-Ra himself. It was not an ideal option but it was better than letting Reno capture her now she didn't have adequate protection and having his way with her before bringing her in. If she was going to be captured he wanted to be the one to do it. Ensure she, the delicate flower, is not damaged in the process. With that decision he started laying his plan on when to collect her and the circumstances surrounding it. It really didn't take long for the opportunity to present itself. Avalanche had been causing problems for Shin-Ra and needed to be dealt with. While Reno was busy dealing with the nuisance Tseng took it upon himself to find Aeris.

She was wary of him but willing to come along without resistance as she knew he would not harm her and she was trying to keep the little girl left with her safe from him as well. It was for the best. But once the helicopter flew over the commotion in Sector 7 Aeris started to react. She was terrified for her new friends. (When did she meet these guys? They weren't safe people to be around, she should know better). She leant over to call out to them and it took me by surprise. She could so easily fall making foolish moves like that. Tseng instinctively slapped her back into the helicopter before she fell. He could not forgive himself for hurting her like that, destroying that last bit of trust she had in me too, but he could not forgive himself if he let her act foolishly like that and she fell to her death. She would never trust him again and it may break his heart, but he knew he probably deserved it for what he was about to deliver her to. He didn't deserve her. He had failed her. "I did my best Aeris but I have failed you. I'm sorry".

First Fanfic so please feel free to review. I am looking to do a couple different ones of Tseng but they won't be similar. More about how Tseng became a TURKS.


End file.
